Almost eighty-five years ago on a cold November day in south Ukraine, a baby boy was born to a twenty-one year old woman. Five months earlier, her husband, who had refused to fight in the Communist army, had been taken by train to Siberia. Her newborn child would never know his father. Soon the woman, her young son, and their family would be forced to flee their homeland, as World War 2 struck. After years of hardships, desperately searching for a place to call home, they would eventually journey to the heart of America—Moundridge, Kansas.

This baby boy was my father. Now a successful doctor and businessman, he has lived out the American Dream. Looking back over the events of his life, my dad can clearly see that things did not fall into place by accident. God protected and provided for his family in so many ways, and He put people in his life to help him grow at just the right time. Most importantly, people taught him how to love.

My father was conceived in a land when evil powers were colliding all around. It was a time of famine, war, and tragedy. But God’s hand was on him.

J.R.R. Tolkien makes this observation about evil: “…evil labors with vast power and perpetual success – in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.”

What a unique perspective that we as Christians have when it comes to evil. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, evil has pervaded the world, but we know that it does not win! God uses even the most seemingly terrible circumstances to bring about good. We see this happen over and over again in the Bible.

Joseph tells his brothers, who sold him into slavery, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position to save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:20)

Paul acknowledges the same thing when in prison. “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” (Phil. 1:12-13)

And of course, the ultimate act of suffering – God Himself dying on a cross, bringing about our salvation from sin. God is always at work in humanity, repurposing evil for His glory. Nothing that happens is out of His control, and nothing that happens is accidental.

If you want to read the story of how God’s love triumphed over evil in the life of my father, there’s a book! Check it out on Amazon here.